GeographyEnglish-language sources on the geography of Moldova are scarce. General works include Fyodor Angeli and Georgi Stoylik, Moldavia, trans. from Russian (1982); and M. Shukhat, Moldavia, trans. from Russian (1986), two well-illustrated descriptive guides. The restructuring of the population of Moldova in the second half of the 20th century is discussed in Irina Livezeanu, “Urbanisation in a Low Key and Linguistic Change in Soviet Moldavia,” Soviet Studies, 33(3):327–351 and 33(4):573–589 (1981). A study of a local elite and its influence on national and cultural identity during the Soviet period is presented in Ronald J. Hill, Soviet Political Elites: The Case of Tiraspol (1977). A detailed and informative discussion of the realities and practices of General works

A general overview of Moldova can be found in Helen Fedor (ed.), Belarus and Moldova: Country Studies (1995). A detailed discussion of ethnic relations is found in Michael Bruchis, One Step Back, Two Steps Forward: On the Language Policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the National Republics: Moldavian, a Look Back, a Survey, and Perspectives, 1924–1980 (1982). Wim P. Van Meurs, The Bessarabian Question in Communist Historiography (1994), comprehensively investigates the intertwining of ethnicity, examines fundamental questions of politics, culture, and culture.nationhood. The postcommunist landscape is surveyed in Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott, Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova (1997).

History

An outline of the early history of the Dacian people in present-day Moldova and Romania is found in G. Bichir, The Archaeology and History of the Carpi from the Second to the Fourth Century AD, 2 vol. (1976; originally published in Romanian, 1973). For the Middle Ages, see Victor Spinei, Moldavia in the 11th–14th Centuries (1986; originally published in Romanian, 1982), is a study of Moldova in the Middle Ages. The incorporation of the territory into the Russian Empire is described in George F. Jewsbury, The Russian Annexation of Bessarabia, 1774–1828 (1976). Charles Upson Clark, Bessarabia: Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea (1927), focuses on the period of World War I. Nicholas Dima, From Moldavia to Moldova: The Soviet-Romanian Territorial Dispute, updated ed. (1991), analyzes, among other historical topics, the history of the ethnic character of the region and its socioeconomic development during the Soviet period. Charles King, The Moldovans: Romania, Russian, and the Politics of Culture (2000), surveys Moldovan political and cultural history with a particular focus on issues of national identity in the 20th century. Andrei Brezianu, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Moldova (2000), is a useful resource.